President Obama warned in his State of the Union address Tuesday that the nation’s middle class is at risk because of growing economic inequality, and argued that the government must do more to preserve the basic American dream.

In a speech that is likely to set the theme of his 2012 re-election bid, Obama said “the basic American promise” that hard work can allow one to own a home and support a family are at risk if the government doesn’t do more to balance the scale between the nation’s rich and poor. In his third such address to the Congress, Obama’s focus was not just on the future—as he laid out broad proposals to boost an “economy built to last, where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded.”

But in a message that was unmistakably aimed at voters in the upcoming presidential election, Obama reminded his audience that the nation’s economic troubles began long before he arrived at the White House, starting with the collapse of the nation’s leading banks in 2008 due to lax regulation and “bad behavior.” But he argued that the country is turning around under his policies, pointing to 3 million jobs created in the last 22 months.

The president argued that he’s laying out a “blueprint for an economy that’s built to last” based on four main themes: American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers and “a renewal of American values.”